I finally saw it last night and
doesn't
begin to cover it. Wow.
It felt small-scale, as some reviewers have complained, but to me that just pulled me in farther.
It pulled no punches, which makes me adore Joss Whedon as a writer even more.
Spoilers:
After Wash's death (and the way it happened), I knew all bets were off; as other characters came close to death I felt real dread, because now I knew we were not in Happy Storyland.
I even think it's evil the way they killed off Shepherd Book, and all over the theater I am certain people were thinking, "Check. Character death. Now let's move on," because his death was "conventional"â€â€tragic, with meaningful last words. It only made what happened to Wash more shocking.
And may I say I was astonished by Nathan Fillion as Mal. I've enjoyed his work in the television episodes, but I didn't expect to be blown away by him as a leading man in a film. Yet I was. So often "television actors" (I know he's been in small parts in some films, but still) bring their small-screen presence to the big screen. He expanded. He can carry a film.
I probably won't get to see this again before it disappears, but I'm most definitely getting the DVD.
Edit: to add spoiler tags (sorry sorry sorry)and again to fix mysterious Giant Font Size